3-D Technology

3-D Technology: A Better Look

Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, Panasonic’s official chief technology officer and unofficial guru of 3-D, isn’t interested in any current limitations of 3-D technology. Refreshingly candid for such a major player, Tsuyuzaki argued we shouldn’t get “religious” about the latest specs or screens over dinner at DIRECTV’s 3 Days of 3-D event during the MLB All-Star break. Instead, he prefers to focus on 3-D’s future potential. It’s not hard to see why. These days everything feels possible; these days everything seems tantalizingly within reach. The future and the past are converging right in front of our eyes.

Among the industry — and the 3-D industry is a rapidly growing beast, a hydra with several deeply coffered heads — the fundamental question has shifted. It’s no longer a matter of if 3-D will catch on. Now it’s a matter of when.

When will 3-D take off?

If the companies trying to push 3-D from techie pipe dream to pop culture mainstay get their way, that “when” will come in a matter of years. And by 2013, if not earlier, 3-D will have irrevocably changed the way men experience entertainment. As we saw with the still-fresh HD takeover, sports and video games will drive this latest revolution too. But our rapidly approaching 3-D future is also inextricably linked with its past, as Hollywood’s prior false starts paved the way for 3-D’s most recent incarnation.

“Every time 3-D’s been tried, every time, people have always liked it,” explains Variety Associate Features Editor, David S. Cohen. From the mass-market proto-3-D stereoscopes of the mid-1800s (“They were ubiquitous in American homes. They were sort of like the 19th century version of the View-Master,” says Cohen) to Jaws3-D, popular culture has long been intrigued by 3-D. But until recently, it’s a flirtation that’s gone nowhere. Because it’s only recently that we’ve finally taken the technological leaps necessary to do 3-D right — and perhaps more important, do it cheaply.

Thanks to the mammoth $2.73 billion success of Avatar and the relatively more modest but repeatable successes of subsequent 3-D offerings, studio pipelines are flooded with titles looking to cash in on 3-D technologies and its premium ticket-pricing model.

Industry challenge: Doing 3-D well

“3-D has always been popular, it’s just always been difficult,” explains Cohen. “Now [that 3-D movies are] becoming easier to do, they just have to figure out how to do it really well.”

Due to major advances in cinematic 3-D technologies over the past decade — more sophisticated 3-D camera rigs, the widespread adoption of digital projectors, ditching those cardboard and cellophane glasses in favor of sleeker, better polarized pairs — doing 3-D movies well is no longer as much of a technological concern. Now it’s a creative one.

For a public weaned on the 3-D of the past, B-grade sci-fi, horror and animated kids’ movies, 3-D is synonymous with hokey gimmickry. “One of the problems, and this has been true going back to the 1950s, is that there’s this constant pressure on filmmakers who are making 3-D movies to deliver those ‘3-D moments’ where stuff flies off the screen,” explains Cohen. “And many filmmakers, especially those trying to do more sophisticated adult material, have always resisted that.”

What role do filmmakers play in advancing 3-D technologies? Read on...